New Year’s Eve by the numbers: How one Philly nightclub prepares for the ball drop

Unlike New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve in Philadelphia looks pretty similar to other cities: Lines for clubs wrap around the block, Uber prices surge, and somewhere, somebody is kissing a stranger.

Dec. 31 is notorious for being one of the busiest in nightlife, with clubs bringing in over 40% of their revenue on average in the fourth quarter, buoyed by just a few hours of ticketed bottle service and a DJ.

In Philly, how much does it take for one nightclub to prepare? For Center City’s Vesper Sports Club, it involves months of preparation, thousands of dollars of champagne, and hundreds of artfully remixed Top 40 songs.

Vesper — one of several establishments owned by the ever-expanding Glu Hospitality — has been hosting a NYE party since 2017, according to owner and partner Derek Gibbons. After taking a break during COVID-19, their celebration is back, this time with a partnership with Joonbug (the company that oversees a dozen vibey New Year’s parties in Philly).

The event takes up all three floors of Vesper, with DJ Smooth spinning until 2 a.m. and a champagne toast as the clock strikes midnight. A $150 ticket will get you access to a five-hour open bar and a buffet of what amounts to bat mitzvah cocktail hour finger foods, while $450 grants two people access to a VIP table and bottle service.

Per Gibbons, the club has a capacity of 500 occupants, and enough space for only eight VIP tables.

Gibbons said the nightclub expects to bring in around $60,000 in revenue on New Year’s Eve, which pales in comparison to clubs in party epicenters like New York City, Miami, and Las Vegas, since they can charge more for hosting big-name acts (and tourists, for that matter).

In Philly “you might get someone who gets someone who wants to spend $10K [to party], but you can’t force someone to do that,” said Gibbons. “In NYC, that might be the minimum to get in.”

Here’s the behind-the-scenes of how Vesper’s NYE celebration comes together — with a little help from some nightclub math.

Gibbons said Vesper has around 800 bottles of champagne on deck between reserves of their house bubbly and Veuve Clicquot, the upscale brand the club trots out for special occasions.

That clocks in at around $15,000 worth of champers alone, according to Gibbons, who explained how ordering a bottle — or bottles, rather — has become a status symbol within a microcosm of status symbols: the VIP section.

“I’ve had nights in the past where people have bought the 15-liter bottle of champagne, which is, like, 20 regular bottles all in one large one,” he said. (For those like this author who have a fuzzy-at-best recollection of the metric system, that’s almost four gallons of champagne, or 507 fluid ounces.)

Gibbons also said that VIP tables will start “bottle wars,” where groups of friends will compete to see who can outdo (re: outspend) the other. On the more outrageous end of purchases is the champagne parade, where a procession of bottle service girls presents at least five bottles of bubbly, sparklers included.

Vesper has purchased close to 2,000 sparklers for New Year’s Eve, Gibbons said, which come in handy for midnight’s toast.

“The anticipation to midnight starts building as soon as people walk in at 9 p.m., so you want that moment to be special and set the tone for whatever else comes after,” said Austin “DJ Smooth” Sotoloff, who will lead the countdown.

Beyond the sparklers, Gibbons said Vesper also purchased over 350 sets of novelty party favors — think strings of Mardi Gras beads, fake eyeglasses shaped like the year 2023, hats, and metallic-colored party horns.

Sotoloff, who has been DJing New Year’s Eve at Vesper for three years, said he plays 200 to 250 songs during a five-hour set.

How? By reading the vibes and keeping a steady hand.

Sotoloff plays each remix for only 45 to 90 seconds before letting one bass drop crest into the next. He said he pays close attention to the dancefloor while in the booth, rather than preparing a full playlist in advance.

“I’m a crowd DJ,” Sotoloff said. “I always read body language. If people are jumping around to EDM, I’m going to keep playing a lot of Steve Aoki and Tiësto, and maybe a little less Chris Brown or Ke$ha.”

Still, spending NYE with DJ Smooth has three rules: no line dances, end the night on a sing-along banger like Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” and try to encapsulate the prior year in one song.

“Whatever I play at midnight is what I think is the song of the year,” Sotoloff said.

His picks to close out 2022? David Guetta and Bebe Rhexa’s “I’m Good (Blue),” whose interpolation of the Eiffel 65 hit was resurrected by TikTok, or perhaps something from Latin trap superstar Bad Bunny, who was Sotoloff’s most requested artist of the year.